On the road to the Hart
In hindsight, I am glad the tyre blow-out held us up.
Waking in the morning to see the beauty of my surroundings, I was glad we had arrived in the dark.
My girlfriend is a confident driver on the dirt, having been out this way plenty of times working out in the communities.
We were meeting friends for NT day up at Harts range, just over 200k's North East of Alice. I finished work at three. We grabbed our camping gear, the dogs, hitting the bottle-o for some beers on our way out of town.
We drove North, then took the right onto the Plenty Highway.
The dark was creeping in as the ranges came into view over on our right. The corrugations in the road were jolting as we flew up the dirt road, graded too long ago.
The blow out scared the living daylights out of us. I made a small scream. Ed brought us safely, rolling on an angle, to a stop. It took us a solid thirty minutes to change the tyre, the dogs roamed the nearby scrubland, sniffing and marking the trees as their territory even though we were the visitors here. We secured the now mangled tyre to the back of the truck, rubber threads and wire dangling.
As we continued, the night had settled upon us and we wondered if we would find our way.
Our friends had left fairly vague directions - 'eight K's after the tyre stack, take the right turn off near the big tree.' We drove slowly, counting the kilometres, constantly wondering to each other - 'Is this it?', 'Did they meant this tree?', 'Oh - there's a turn off...maybe?", "Does that rate as a big tree to you?'
As we drove further, we could see a small light up ahead. Our friends decided to come to the main road to collect us, concerned we had lost our way.
We drove through a few paddocks, opening and closing gates. We navigated in the dark over dips, climbed rocks and hills, putting our four-wheel-drive to work until our friends pulled to a stop. We pulled up behind them, let the dogs out and started hauling our gear to their campsite, over a small rocky stream, under low lying branches.
They had already started a fire, it was burning low, providing light and warmth for the cold winter night. Sitting around the fire, we shared laughs, swapped stories and downed a few beers as the dogs lay on their swag by the fire before we all settled down to sleep.
When I woke in the morning, the sun was already high. Blue skies filled my view, my warm breath mixed with the cold morning air created a cloud above me. I turned to kiss the cheek of my girlfriend sleeping beside me. As she slowly woke, I sat up and took in my surroundings.
The rocky stream that ran beside our campsite lead to a series of waterfalls, I could hear the fall of water the night before in the dark, but I had no idea what I would find when I woke. Hills ran on either side of us, the native shrubs softened the lines between the of the hills and the sky. It was beautiful. I couldn't thanks our friends enough for bringing me to this central oasis.
I shook my girlfriend's shoulder, coaxing her awake. I was excited for her to see the exquisite beauty around us and begin to explore.
Waking in the morning to see the beauty of my surroundings, I was glad we had arrived in the dark.
We were meeting friends for NT day up at Harts range, just over 200k's North East of Alice. I finished work at three. We grabbed our camping gear, the dogs, hitting the bottle-o for some beers on our way out of town.
We drove North, then took the right onto the Plenty Highway.
The dark was creeping in as the ranges came into view over on our right. The corrugations in the road were jolting as we flew up the dirt road, graded too long ago.
The blow out scared the living daylights out of us. I made a small scream. Ed brought us safely, rolling on an angle, to a stop. It took us a solid thirty minutes to change the tyre, the dogs roamed the nearby scrubland, sniffing and marking the trees as their territory even though we were the visitors here. We secured the now mangled tyre to the back of the truck, rubber threads and wire dangling.
As we continued, the night had settled upon us and we wondered if we would find our way.
Our friends had left fairly vague directions - 'eight K's after the tyre stack, take the right turn off near the big tree.' We drove slowly, counting the kilometres, constantly wondering to each other - 'Is this it?', 'Did they meant this tree?', 'Oh - there's a turn off...maybe?", "Does that rate as a big tree to you?'
As we drove further, we could see a small light up ahead. Our friends decided to come to the main road to collect us, concerned we had lost our way.
We drove through a few paddocks, opening and closing gates. We navigated in the dark over dips, climbed rocks and hills, putting our four-wheel-drive to work until our friends pulled to a stop. We pulled up behind them, let the dogs out and started hauling our gear to their campsite, over a small rocky stream, under low lying branches.
They had already started a fire, it was burning low, providing light and warmth for the cold winter night. Sitting around the fire, we shared laughs, swapped stories and downed a few beers as the dogs lay on their swag by the fire before we all settled down to sleep.
When I woke in the morning, the sun was already high. Blue skies filled my view, my warm breath mixed with the cold morning air created a cloud above me. I turned to kiss the cheek of my girlfriend sleeping beside me. As she slowly woke, I sat up and took in my surroundings.
The rocky stream that ran beside our campsite lead to a series of waterfalls, I could hear the fall of water the night before in the dark, but I had no idea what I would find when I woke. Hills ran on either side of us, the native shrubs softened the lines between the of the hills and the sky. It was beautiful. I couldn't thanks our friends enough for bringing me to this central oasis.
I shook my girlfriend's shoulder, coaxing her awake. I was excited for her to see the exquisite beauty around us and begin to explore.
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